Life After Murder: Can prisoners be redeemed?

Guests

Journalist Nancy Mullane went into an assignment to report on the costs of incarceration. Out of her time spent behind bars with prisoners, Mullane has pulled out the stories of five convicted murderers who were sentenced to life without parole in her new book, "Life After Murder."

From NPR's interview with Mullane:

"I was put in this small room to wait, and the door opened, and four men who had committed murder walked in the room and sat with me, alone. There were no guards, and I thought: These men committed murder. ... My impressions at the time were: If someone commits a murder, we keep them behind the walls because if they have access to people on the outside, they will want to kill again -- and I assumed in my mind that they would want to kill me... Instead of that happening, they reached out their hands and gave me their names and asked me who I was, and that was the beginning of a question: What is change? What is redemption for someone who commits the most horrible of all crimes?"

What happens when someone is behind bars for decades? Can these prisoners be redeemed and accepted back into society? Mullane joined The Daily Circuit to discuss her book.

Do you think murderers can ever truly be rehabilitated? Comment on the blog.